imagePARIS: The Paris transport network RATP said Monday it will invest a record 1.78 billion ($1.9 billion) next year to "extend, modernise and maintain" a system which carries some 14 million passengers per day.

The publicly-run RATP approved a sum surpassing this year's investments by 26 million euros at a meeting last Friday as it pursues a five-year 8.5 billion euro rolling programme of upgrades which the firm unveiled last month.

The programme is being carried out under a contract with the Stif, Paris' regional transport authority.

The 2016 cash injection will see 417 million euros spent on several metro and tram line extensions and one new line as well as several station facelifts in Paris, according to Forbes the world's third most popular destination after Bangkok and London.

Another 569 million euros will go on modernising rolling stock and a further 791 million euros for modernisation of information systems and general renovation.

The Paris metro opened in 1900 -- 37 years after the world's first underground system in London, while the RER regional rapid transit network began operating in 1969.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015

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